EE criticises ‘wholly misleading’ 4G coverage claim

Operator reports Manchester city centre coverage is over 80 per cent, not 40 per cent

EE has hit back at reports its 4G coverage only covers 40 per cent of city centre Manchester, claiming the data collected by RootMetrics includes areas outside of ‘Manchester city’.

Earlier today (November 21) network analysis firm RootMetrics claimed almost 60 per cent of the area it defined as ‘urbanised Manchester’ could not receive stable 4G coverage.

However, EE claims the statistics used by the firm to compile the report included data from areas not included in their 4G coverage area such as Stockport, Rochdale and Bury.

A spokesperson for EE said: “RootMetrics’ reporting that 4G is only available in 40.2 per cent of Manchester is wholly misleading. RootMetrics has measured an area they choose to name ‘urbanised Manchester’ that is considerably larger than Manchester city centre, which we have regarded as our 4G launch zone. In Manchester city itself, roughly inside the M60, we estimate our 4G coverage is currently in excess of 80 per cent and increasing on a daily basis as we turn on more sites.

“The area covered by ‘urbanised Manchester’ in the RootMetrics report includes parts of Salford, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside, Stockport and Trafford. Of those boroughs, only parts of Salford are due to be covered by 4G at this early stage of rollout, and we have delivered this coverage. Our coverage checker on ee.co.uk is clear about this.

“All other regions in Greater Manchester are due to be covered by 4G during the rollout as part of our goal to cover 70 per cen of the population by the end of 2013 and 98 per cent by the end of 2014.”